Final week, I discovered myself hunched over my laptop computer at 10 p.m. (hey, that’s late for me!), wrestling with a coding drawback. After hours of frustration, I stepped away and made a cup of tea. After I returned, I did what any self-respecting technologist in 2025 would do: I backtracked, reformulated my query, and requested ChatGPT for assist.
I’m continually requested questions like “Ought to my children be taught to code?” and “What expertise do they really want on this AI world?” I’m wondering about this too. I imply, if AI can now write code higher than most people, ought to we nonetheless be instructing children to do it? How can we put together them for the long run, particularly as issues are shifting so rapidly?
Maybe counterintuitively, this AI revolution would possibly make a liberal arts schooling extra worthwhile. A poetry main learns find out how to categorical humanity. A historian learns classes from the previous. A philosophy pupil learns to query assumptions and moral frameworks. These timeless human expertise turn into much more essential as AI handles the technical heavy lifting. With these foundational skills to know and categorical the human situation, what’s potential with creativity turns into boundless.
The Finish of Coding Is the Starting of Drawback-Fixing
As AI begins writing code, we’re getting into what my pal Tim O’Reilly calls “the top of programming as we all know it.” We’ve gone from punch playing cards to meeting language to C, Python, and JavaScript—and now we’re simply telling computer systems what to do in plain language. That shift opens the door for extra individuals to form expertise. The long run isn’t about understanding code; it’s about understanding what to construct and why.
Stanford researchers, together with Noah Goodman (who’s each a pc scientist and a psychologist finding out human cognition), just lately revealed a fascinating paper analyzing how completely different AI methods method problem-solving.
What makes Goodman’s perspective so worthwhile is his twin experience in how minds, each human and synthetic, work. His paper reveals that the pondering patterns that make sure AI methods extra profitable mirror these of efficient human problem-solvers: Probably the most profitable methods confirm their work, backtrack when caught, break massive issues into manageable subgoals, and work backward from desired outcomes.
It’s a profound discovery: The abilities that make people efficient problem-solvers will stay worthwhile no matter how AI evolves. It made me understand that these cognitive behaviors—not coding syntax—are what we needs to be nurturing in our youngsters.
5 Important Abilities Youngsters Want (Greater than Coding)
I’m not saying we shouldn’t train children to code. It’s a helpful ability. However these are the 5 true foundations that can serve them no matter how expertise evolves.
1. Loving the journey, not simply the vacation spot
When homework appears inconceivable or a LEGO construction collapses for the fifth time, it’s straightforward for teenagers to get discouraged. However instructing them that setbacks are studying alternatives builds the bounce-back means they’ll want in a quickly altering world. The capability to soak up real setbacks and proceed ahead—discovering one thing new even after they don’t attain their preliminary objective—may be the one most necessary ability we will nurture in our children.
Creating a love of studying helps them to see robust issues as fascinating puzzles relatively than scary roadblocks. This doesn’t simply apply to tutorial topics. Real curiosity in regards to the world prepares youngsters to adapt repeatedly. Probably the most profitable individuals I do know aren’t those that memorized essentially the most info or mastered one particular ability; they’re those who stayed curious and stored going by fixed change.
We regularly discuss intrinsic motivation as a prerequisite for studying, nevertheless it’s additionally a muscle you construct by the educational course of. As youngsters sort out challenges and expertise the satisfaction of overcoming them, they’re not simply fixing issues; they’re growing the motivation to sort out the following one.
2. Being a question-asker, not simply an answer-getter
Whenever you’re a pupil, you’re judged by how effectively you reply questions.…However in life, you’re judged by how good your questions are.—Robert Langer, MIT Professor and Cofounder of Moderna
Anybody can ask AI for solutions. Those that ask considerate questions will get essentially the most from it. Good questions stem from understanding what you don’t know, being clear about what you’re actually searching for, and framing them in a means that results in significant solutions.
Probably the most highly effective metaskills we will help youngsters develop is self-awareness about their very own studying fashion. Some are project-based learners who must construct one thing to be able to perceive it. Others be taught by dialog, writing, visualization, or instructing others. When a toddler discovers how their mind works greatest, they’ll method any new topic by the lens that works for them, turning what may need been a wrestle right into a pure course of.
When a toddler asks, “Why is the sky blue?,” they’re doing one thing highly effective: noticing patterns, questioning what others take without any consideration, and searching for deeper understanding. Youngsters who be taught to ask good questions will direct the world relatively than be directed by it. They’ll know find out how to break massive issues into solvable items—an method that works in any subject.
3. Making an attempt, failing, and making an attempt in a different way
When fixing issues, scientists don’t transfer ahead in a straight line. They make guesses, take a look at them, and sometimes uncover they have been fallacious. Then they use that data to make higher guesses. This try-learn-adjust loop is one thing all profitable problem-solvers use, whether or not they’re fixing code or determining life.
When one thing doesn’t work as anticipated—together with an AI-generated reply—children want to determine what went fallacious after which attempt completely different approaches. This implies getting snug with saying issues like “Let me attempt a distinct means” or “That didn’t work as a result of…”
Whether or not they’re troubleshooting a tool or navigating on a regular basis challenges, this mindset helps them method issues with confidence relatively than giving up.
4. Seeing the entire image
The most important challenges we at present face, from local weather change to healthcare, require understanding how completely different items join and affect one another. This “big-picture pondering” applies equally to on a regular basis conditions, comparable to understanding why a classroom will get noisy or why a household funds doesn’t stability.
This mindset is about recognizing patterns and understanding how altering one factor impacts the whole lot else. It helps us anticipate unintended penalties and create options that really work.
Once we train children to see connections relatively than remoted info, we put together them to sort out issues that AI alone can’t resolve. They turn into administrators relatively than followers, in a position to mix human wants with technological potentialities.
5. Strolling in others’ sneakers
In my latest op-ed for the Chicago Tribune, I argued that effectivity and empathy aren’t opposing forces. They want one another. This precept is particularly necessary as we elevate the following era.
Know-how with out human understanding results in options that may look good on paper however neglect the true individuals they’re meant to assist. I’ve seen this firsthand in authorities methods that course of individuals effectively however fail to acknowledge their dignity and distinctive conditions.
Youngsters who develop deep empathy will create applied sciences that really serve humanity relatively than simply serving statistics. They’ll ask not solely “Can we construct this?” however “Ought to we construct this, and who will it assist or hurt?” They’ll do not forget that behind each knowledge level is a human story, and that essentially the most significant improvements are people who strengthen our connections to 1 one other.
The Actual Future: Amplifying Human Creativity
These 5 expertise converge in what I see as essentially the most thrilling facet of our AI-augmented future: democratized creation. As extra individuals acquire the flexibility to form expertise, even with out conventional coding expertise, we’ll see an explosion of native, purpose-driven options.
As I just lately wrote, I helped put collectively ai/teenagers, the primary international AI convention for and by teenagers. I wished to be taught from the primary AI-native era, which intuitively understands expertise’s potential in methods many adults don’t.
Think about a world the place younger individuals not solely use expertise however actively form it to resolve issues of their communities, designing accessibility instruments for buddies with disabilities, creating platforms that join native assets with those that want them, or constructing academic experiences tailor-made to completely different studying kinds.
This future isn’t about AI changing human creativity; it’s about amplifying it, making it potential for extra individuals to carry their distinctive views and options to life.
Let’s Construct This Future Collectively!
The great thing about this method—specializing in resilience, questioning, adaptation, methods pondering, and empathy—is that it really works no matter how expertise evolves. Probably the most technologically superior future nonetheless wants individuals who can embrace challenges, ask significant questions, be taught repeatedly, see connections, and perceive one another.
In some ways, we’re returning to the perfect of a classical schooling for the AI age. These expertise kind a contemporary trivium—not grammar, logic, and rhetoric however maybe curiosity, creativity, and compassion—foundational skills that unlock all different studying and doing.
Let’s work on this as a neighborhood! I’m crowdsourcing concepts, actions, and approaches that assist develop these important expertise. What different expertise do you assume we should always deal with? I’m desperate to be taught with all of you.